1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that carries out printing on a printing medium that is electrostatically adsorbed to a transport belt.
2. Related Art
Printing apparatuses that electrostatically adsorb sheets of paper, which are an example of a printing medium, to a charged transport belt, and carry out printing on sheets of paper in such a state, are known. Of the two surfaces of sheets of paper, in a case in which the surface that comes into contact with the transport belt is set as a contact surface, and the surface that is on the opposite side to the contact surface is set as a printing surface, in such a printing apparatus, a printing material is adhered to the printing surface of sheets of paper.
Additionally, in such a printing apparatus, in order to increase the size of an electrostatic adsorption force of sheets of paper by the transport belt, a destaticization brush is provided as a destaticization section for removing an electric charge from the printing surface of sheets of paper. The destaticization brush can remove an electric charge from the printing surface by coming into contact with the printing surface of sheets of paper that are transported in a predetermined transport direction. Therefore, it is easy for foreign matter such as paper debris to become adhered to the destaticization brush. Further, as an adherence amount of foreign matter to the destaticization brush becomes greater, a removal efficiency of an electric charge from sheets of paper by the destaticization brush decreases.
In such an instance, JP-A-2008-96551 discloses an example of a configuration that suppresses reductions in the removal efficiency of an electric charge from sheets of paper by the destaticization brush. That is, a destaticization section which includes a rotational shaft that extends in a width direction of sheets of paper, and a plurality of destaticization brushes that are attached to the rotational shaft, is provided in a printing apparatus that is disclosed in JP-A-2008-96551. Each destaticization brush is disposed along a circumferential direction of the rotational shaft. Therefore, it is possible to change a destaticization brush that comes into contact with sheets of paper by adjusting a rotational angle of the rotational shaft.
In addition, a cleaning member for eliminating foreign matter such as paper debris from the destaticization brushes that are attached to the rotational shaft, is provided in the above-mentioned printing apparatus. That is, the cleaning member comes into contact with the destaticization brushes that are not in contact with sheets of paper, and removes foreign matter from the destaticization brushes which the cleaning member comes into contact with as a result of the rotational shaft rotating. Accordingly, in the above-mentioned printing apparatus, since it is possible to bring destaticization brushes, for which the adherence amount of foreign matter is low, into contact with sheets of paper, reductions in the removal efficiency of an electric charge from sheets of paper by the destaticization brushes are suppressed. As a result of this, it is possible to suppress reductions in an electrostatic adsorption force of sheets of paper by the transport belt.
In the printing apparatus that is disclosed in JP-A-2008-96551, the destaticization brushes abut against sheets of paper across the width direction of the sheets of paper. That is, locations of the destaticization brushes that abut against sheets of paper are fixed in the width direction of the sheets of paper. Therefore, there is a concern that it will be easy for foreign matter to become adhered to the destaticization brushes, and therefore, that the removal efficiency of an electric charge from sheets of paper by the destaticization brushes will be reduced.
In addition, in the printing apparatus that is disclosed in JP-A-2008-96551, the above-mentioned rotational shaft is disposed in an upper region of the transport belt, and cleaning of the destaticization brushes is performed by rotating the corresponding rotational shaft. At this time, there is a concern that foreign matter that becomes detached from the destaticization brushes as a result of coming into contact with the cleaning member will become adhered to sheets of paper that are being transported, will become adhered to a printing section, which is positioned further on a downstream side in a transport direction of sheets of paper than the destaticization brushes, or the like, and that printing quality on the sheets of paper will be reduced as a result.